It is a modestly entertaining film that falls apart when subjected to any sort of scrutiny. John Connor, tactical and strategic genius. Messiah. The reincarnation of...well, just look at his initials. Doesn't occur to this awesome dude that, like, if he hovers his chopper three feet above the water, the terminators in the water might, like, attack. For that matter, he has forgotten the previous three films and is unaware that M4s and sidearms are not ideal for fighting terminators. Of course the rest of the leadership is just as stupid. Never occurs to them that broadcasting a signal continuously might give away their position--and even if the signal worked (talk about stupid assumptions), it never occurs to them that Skynet might have standoff weaponry.
Skynet has been transformed from implacable death into a Bond villain. Why does it let Marcus shut down the defenses? Why does it try to 'convince' him by talking, rather than doing something, anything, while he was hooked up to the system? Why does it not kill Kyle Reese? Ever? Why do the various terminators that get their hands on JC not, like, kill him? Instead of throwing him against a wall repeatedly? Or trying to slowly strangle him?
Of course, everyone in the movie is incompetent. The A-10 pilots, upon realizing there's a HK behind them...do nothing. Until JC yells at them to take evasive action, at which point the survivor reverses course to attack the massive VTOL again.
The machines are incompetent throughout. And while their inability to hit Marcus and Kyle is--laughably--explained near the end, their inability to kill JC never is. Regardless, the folks who fail to kill Kyle and Marcus are no less competent than anyone else in the film, which robs the explanation of any sort of power. If the machines were otherwise competent but never seemed able to hit Kyle and Marcus, that'd be one thing. But they're not.
Oh, and the airbases. Firstly, Skynet doesn't know how to make guided weaponry? They can build massive mechs and HKs and whatever that transport was, but not cruise missiles or the sentient equivalent thereof? Secondly, how are there still scores of operational A-10s, Hueys, and Blackhawks? There was a nuclear apocalypse, so where exactly are the spare parts and fuel and munitions coming from?
There's a fair amount of other stuff I'm forgetting as well. It's not notably more stupid than Star Trek or, say, Transformers but it is substantially less fun than those films. Might be worth a rental, but certainly not theater price. I'd have been a lot happier if there had actually been proper battles in the film; as it was, the closes we got to the war was an air strike.
